eBook issues and suggestions

#1

So I recently bought the latest ebook on Google play. Here are some of my problems with it.

  • Its a scanned copy of the book, so literally images.
  • On a web browser the experience seems to be fine, but users really want to read on a
    tablet app or something more portable. (Tablet browser sucks in my
    opinion)
  • On a tablet: There are two apps in which I can open the book.
    a) Adobe Digital Editions app
    b) Google play books.
  • ADE experience: (Need to download a .acsm file from google play and open it in ADE)
    Horrible on a macbook ( Scrolling is exponentially slow)
    On an ipad, Opening the ebook throws error: E_GOOGLE_DEVICE_LIMIT_REACHED
    Had to call Google customer service to reset the account so that I can open it.
  • Google play Books experience
    Google play books iOS app is great and gives several options to users from changing to night mode, sepia mode, or zooming in or out, etc. But when it comes to this book very limited options, The page format is locked to 2 pages. There is no way I can switch to 1 page format. 2 page format is too small on a tablet to read. NO zooming in out functionality that scales to tablet. You can always zoom in on anything on a tablet, but the book doesn’t resize its fonts like other ebooks. Google told me its upto publishers to introduce that functionality. Sigh…
  • Frankly I would recommend you guys to publish a better ebook with better functionalities. I’m sure there must be some constraints around it, but I have read numerous ebooks/epubs with code and text simultaneously in them. E.g. Linux device drivers book.
  • I bought the ebook since I’m assuming this book is going to go under revisions based on user feedback it’d be good to automatically get a new copy every time there is a revision.
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#2

Hey Akash,

Thanks so much for your feedback on ebook, and one thing I notice that is the zooming in function as Google told you it is upto publisher which we authors have no idea about this. However, we will come back and take a look of this for sure. There are something we want to clarify, we upload the PDF to Google and there are few things we can do to control the quality, and my experience told me they are not doing a good job still like it feels like an image instead of a high quality paper on web browser. However, we cannot do anything to improve this sadly. Until Google improves this, I would say using App is the best thing you can do now until we figure it out how to let Google scale the font.

Again, thanks for your feedback!

EDIT: I try to read it on my Android Tablet and the fonts scale pretty well in my Google Play Books app and I will check the iOS version later.

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#3

Hello all,

Thank you for the book and this website. I admire the authors’ dedication and enthusiasm. I will comment on the contents separately.

Instead of creating a new topic, I decided to add to an existing topic. A popup did suggest to me that I was replying to a topic that was 333 days old, but I experience that this issue has not been fixed yet. I just bought the ebook on Google Play. The scrolling of PDF via Adobe Digital Editions on a Macbook is unacceptably slow. I can’t be connected to the Internet all the time. So, it does seem like it is a hassle. If I am not mistaken, Google Play used to give us a DRM-free PDF of the book (just like O’Reilly does).

Another issue is that I use a Linux box as my primary desktop. What is the solution for people like me?

Regards,
Kedar

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#4

First of all, great books guys, I bought both EPI and EPI-Java PRINTED books, helps me keeping my Interview Preparedness on the edge :slight_smile:

Now to the E-Books issues: Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) App allows you to read EPI books bought on Google Play Books on Windows (native app), Mac (native app) and Linux (virtualization of Windows plus Windows ADE app)

I actually verified all three because I could not read EPI-Java I bought on Google Play Books in ADE for 3 days while I was getting E_GOOGLE_DEVICE_LIMIT_REACHED in ADE and calls to Google went nowhere for a day or two, then I started getting E_LIC_LICENSE_SIGN_ERROR and instead of just giving up (like a regular user would) and ask for a refund, I bought two other Google Play Books :open_mouth: for 99 cents :slight_smile: to troubleshoot (that’s what we engineers do)

So I kept getting same errors across all 3 Google Play Books on both Windows and Mac ADE apps, then I decided to DIG DEEPER :slight_smile: and I bought another ADE-encrypted e-book from Kobo and I also found that you can get free ADE-encrypted e-books from Overdrive by “Virtual Check Out from Local Library” using Local Library ID, so I got several of those.

By that time I also found out that ADE App written by Adobe requires Adobe Content Server (ACS) deployed on Publisher side (Google Play) and that ACS written in JAVA :astonished: and that when you click “Download PDF” in Google Play Books for EPI you actually download .acsm file that is XML-based, so I actually compared them all against each other: Google, Kobo and Overdrive and found quite a few differences (and they supposed to be the same?)

I also found on Adobe Forums that ADE errors E_LIC_LICENSE_SIGN_ERROR is mis-configuration of ACS and needs to be fixed there (on Google’s servers, not Adobe’s servers)

After sending all of that through “Contact Us” using “Call Us” making sure it’s properly logged, E_LIC_LICENSE_SIGN_ERROR disappeared in a day or two.

Now to the remaining problem, FUZZINESS of the EPI-JAVA in Chrome Web Browser, ADE App, iPhone Google Books App, Android Google Books App: It MIGHT look OK, as in “Well, It’s SCANNED BOOK what do you expect?” until you realize IT IS NOT SCANNED BOOK ???

VERY EASY TO REPRODUCE: ZOOM IN TO MAX for both EPI SAMPLE PDF from this website (NOT Google Play Books!!! ITS THE SAME SCANNED PDF) AND Google Play Books SAMPLE EPI Books.

EPI SAMPLE PDF from this website looks CRYSTAL CLEAR when ZOOM IN TO MAX AND reading normal.
EPI SAMPLE from Google Play Books LOOKS HORRIBLE EYE-DESTROYING FUZZY when ZOOM IN TO MAX AND VERY DISTRACTING when readling normally.

I’m going on the trip next week and I opened case with Google Play Books support that if they don’t resolve it until then and I have to take printed book with me, then there is no reason for me to keep EPI-JAVA in my Google Play Books account (I will happily buy it again when this issue is solved)

Here is Android phone with Google Play Books app ZOOM IN TO MAX on top of EPI PRINTED book: http://imgur.com/a/Ssu07 and http:// imgur.com/a/8GXeS (click on images to get larger view)

Compare those HORRIBLE FUZZY images with these CRYSTAL CLEAR images (EVEN WITH HIGHER ZOOM!!!) of EPI-JAVA SAMPLE PDF downloaded from this website on the same Android phone: https://imgur.com/a/1TDRz and http:// imgur.com/a/d8SjB (click on images to get larger view)

On the related note of issues, I could not register for the account because you sending verification e-mail from non-existing domain discourse.elementsofprogramminginterviews.com - easiest solution: add A record for that hostname :slight_smile:

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#5

Ok, first something good - somebody asked how to use EPI e-book on Linux, there are 2 ways: either Windows in VM or (better) use Wine http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=6326 - I used and recommend version 1.7.2 it still works even in Windows 10 and has dark theme.
Follow instructions on http:// wiki.winehq.org/Ubuntu and

wget http://download.macromedia.com/pub/developer/digitalpublishing/digitaleditions_172.exe
wine ./digitaleditions_172.exe

and after some struggle with E_GOOGLE_DEVICE_LIMIT_REACHED, E_LIC_LICENSE_SIGN_ERROR and several calls to Google Play support you will be fine.

Now the bad part, I just refunded EPI-Java e-book from Google Play because THEY DONT SEEM TO CARE - I submitted several full detailed bug reports that were “Escalated to Specialist” and all I got is automated e-mail from Google support and when I replied to those, I got nothing.

Well, hopefully in a year or two they will fix it and I’ll happily buy it again.

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#6

After sending all the photos and explanations to Google this is what I got from them:

"Thank you again for taking the time to contact Google. My name is Alex, an Advanced Support Technician with Google Play, and I’m sorry to hear the text appears blurry when zoomed in. I’d be happy to give you the information you need!

Google Play Books is currently working as intended. We do appreciate your feedback, and I’ll be sure to pass it along so that we can continue to improve Google Play products."

Well, “But it works on my tiny Android phone!” and “Casino/Google always wins!”.

Time to workout that biceps on the printed EPI. Hmm, maybe I need to order larger print of EPI…

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#7

Hey @Kedar_Mhaswade,

Sorry for your inconvenience. On my Android phone, I remember this a way to download the book within the Google Books app such that you don’t need to connect to the internet all the time. For desktop, you might still need to connect to the internet.

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#8

Hey @vicaruto2,

Thanks for all the researching you have done to Google Play, and it is really a pain that they are not supporting features that many readers want. We do have larger printed EPI in physical form, and e-book is always available for zooming-in and -out. Please let us know if you have any problem.

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#9

Hello authors, thanks so much for writing this book. I have the printed versions of the original C++ and 2 editions of the Java one as well. I also had bought the ebook from Google play. I usually go through the printed book to focus better with less distractions (Its easy to binge on Youtube when studying from the ebook :slight_smile: ).

However the ebook has been immensely helpful to me for revising the book on the go. I just add my summary of the solution as notes in the table of contents to every problem. This way, I am able to revise the full book within a few hours. I was expecting the ebook to be updated along with the print version, alas that doesn’t seem to be true. Can you please find a way to keep all versions - online + printed exactly the same so we can use them interchangeably?

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